Amid border tensions with China and a growing chorus for boycotting Chinese goods, top Indian executives of some of the most popular phone brands like Xiaomi and Realme have found themselves in hot water every time they tweet to promote their upcoming or existing products.
Sensing the consumers' mood, social media teams at some Chinese smartphone brands have decided to adopt a more cautionary approach on promoting their products for the time being, internal sources told IANS.
A tweet on Friday by Xiaomi India Managing Director Manu Kumar Jain that announced the next sale date for its newly launched Mi Notebooks was trolled.
While many users wrote "boycott Chinese goods" in the comment section, one user even advised Jain to keep quiet for some time in order to avoid drawing unwanted attention as the situation is not good.
However, in less than a couple of hours of the tweet, it garnered nearly more than a thousand likes and over 100 retweets.
Thrilled by the love #MiNoteBooks have been receiving from media and Mi fans.
— Manu Kumar Jain (@manukumarjain) June 19, 2020
Ultra-light, ultra-fast, and made for power users to #MakeEpicHappen.
Next sale is on June 2⃣6⃣ at 12PM.#Xiaomi pic.twitter.com/TzRm3lYOgf
Jain has over 374,000 followers on Twitter. His tweet on June 17 which was related to the sale of Mi Notebooks garnered nearly 2,000 likes and 470 retweets.
Realme India CEO Madhav Sheth who is also very active on social media, had to deal with a similar response on Thursday as several Twitter users called for boycotting Chinese goods when he tweeted about the upcoming launch of Realme X3 and Realme X3 SuperZoom smartphones in India on June 25.
"You are a Chinese brand. And after the current issue with Chinese troops I am not gonna buy any smartphone from Chinese brands like Realme Redmi Oppo Vivo. I will instead opt for Samsung no matter if I have to compromise with some extra features," Twitter user Akshat Shukla (@akshat_shukla22) wrote in the comment section.
We have worked hard to bring a flagship feature to our premium X series. With a combination of High Quality Lens, High Sensitivity Sensors & Extreme Multiframe Algorithms, we have created the perfect starry sky click with #realmeX3 & #realmeX3SuperZoom.
— Madhav (@MadhavSheth1) June 18, 2020
Launching on 25th June pic.twitter.com/OsacfImY9p
Be it design or performance the #realmeBudsQ outperforms every other TWS in the segment.
Unveiling at 12:30PM, 25th June.#QuiteStylishTrueWireless pic.twitter.com/NySc72JXgC— Madhav (@MadhavSheth1) June 19, 2020
The Realme India CEO has over 223,000 followers on Twitter.
There were reports also of OPPO cancelling the livestream to launch its 5G phone in India too in the current serious situation. The company though blamed a technical glitch as the reason for not livestreaming the event.
The India smartphone market is dominated by Chinese players with 81% of the market share being occupied by brands such as Xiaomi, Realme, Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus, among others.